1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus to employ a marking system to documents which is either visible to the naked eye under normal illumination, or invisible to the naked eye under normal illumination but readable under a specified illumination source, and, more particularly, a marking system to confirm that a document has been completely sent by facsimile(FAX) machine to a particular receiver at a particular time and date.
2. Description of Related Art
In the use of Facsimile(FAX) machines, it has been a problem within an office environment to confirm that a document has, indeed, been sent to the intended recipient. This is particularly true when another person is assigned the task and must also perform other tasks or FAX other documents, thereby dividing that person's attention from the particular task that may require confirmation. It is, also, inherent in FAX machine feeders or during hand feeding a document of multiple pages that two or more pages are processed together one or more times resulting in an incomplete document received by the FAX receiver. No previous satisfactory method or device is available with the specific purpose of confirming that a particular document has been sent in its entirety. In addition no such device exists which operates without defacing the document which is undesirable in the case of legal documents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,558, issued on May 18, 1993, to Obata, et al. describes a system which employs invisible ink to a receiving FAX machine document output to assure secure transmission only to the intended user who has a reader device operating under select light characteristics, enabling that user to read the information thereon. No provision is in the '558 patent is made for confirming the FAX has been completely sent from the sending machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,084, issued on Mar. 12, 1985, to Jauch describes an invisible marking system using a reading system which operates outside the visible spectrum. The '084 system is primarily designed for marking documents such as currency, securities, and identification cards. No mention is made of using this reading technique for the purpose of confirming that a FAX has been completely sent from a sending machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,837,042, issued on Nov. 17, 1998 to Lent et al. describes various formulations of invisible ink usable by an ink jet printer which are readable only upon exposure to ultra violet light. No mention is made of using this marking or reading technique for the purpose of confirming that a FAX has been completely sent from a sending machine.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.